Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a self-contained trailer and tractor used in hydraulic fracturing.
Background Information
Hydraulic fracturing is the fracturing of rock by a pressurized liquid. Some hydraulic fractures form naturally, certain veins or dikes are examples. Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracturing is a technique in which typically water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and the mixture is injected at high pressure into a wellbore to create fractures, which form conduits along which fluids such as gas, petroleum, and groundwater may migrate to the well. The technique is very common in wells for shale gas, tight gas, tight oil, and coal seam gas.
A hydraulic fracture is formed by pumping the fracturing fluid into the wellbore at a rate sufficient to increase pressure downhole to exceed that of the fracture gradient (pressure gradient) of the rock. The fracture gradient is defined as the pressure increase per unit of the depth due to its density and it is usually measured in pounds per square inch per foot or bars per meter. The rock cracks and the fracture fluid continues further into the rock, extending the crack still further, and so on. Operators typically try to maintain “fracture width”, or slow its decline, following treatment by introducing into the injected fluid a proppant—a material such as grains of sand, ceramic, or other particulates, that prevent the fractures from closing when the injection is stopped and the pressure of the fluid is reduced. Consideration of proppant strengths and prevention of proppant failure becomes more important at greater depths where pressure and stresses on fractures are higher. The propped fracture is permeable enough to allow the flow of formation fluids to the well. Formation fluids include gas, oil, salt water, fresh water and fluids introduced to the formation during completion of the well during fracturing.
Fracturing is typically performed by large diesel-powered pumps. Such pumps are able to pump fracturing fluid into a wellbore at a high enough pressure to crack the formation, but they also have drawbacks. For example, diesel pumps are very heavy, and thus must be moved on heavy duty trailers, making transporting the pumps between oilfields expensive and inefficient. In addition, the diesel engines required to drive the pumps require a relatively high level of maintenance.
What is needed is a pump system that overcomes the problems associated with diesel pumps.